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This is an older story I started years ago and never really finished. Figured I might as well post what I have, though.
Google docs link. https://docs.google.com/document/d/.....it?usp=sharing
****************
Chapter 1
Jessica Solar had gotten up that morning when she usually did. She'd gotten ready for school and left the house right on time, and even, through a quirk in traffic that day, been a few minutes earlier than normal. She talked to her friends, gone to class, had lunch, even passed a pop science quiz. All in all, a fairly normal, if unusually good, school day.
As had almost become tradition with her friends, they stopped at a little cafe on their way back home. A simple way to socialize before they all had to head home and start on schoolwork. They got their favorite drinks and snacks, sat down at their favorite table, and discussed what was going on. And made plans for the weekend, of course. There was an art show they wanted to see.
Still, a very normal day. It wasn't until they took their leave of each other, and Jessica and Jasmine decided to take a shortcut down an alley that things became un-ordinary.
****************
“And that's why I think Lord Mandel lost.” Jasmine said, with an air of certainty to her. Jessica shook her head at her friend's obsession with the series. They weren't even very well written, in her opinion. Oh well, everyone had their oddities.
Still, Jessica didn't want her friend to think she was ignoring her. “Wasn't Mandel the one that found the green sword?” She asked.
“No, silly.” Jasmine giggled. “They're still looking for that. Mandel’s the one that sent the expedition to the southern continent. If it wasn't for him, they'd have all…”
“No one cares about that series.” A masculine voice interrupted. The two teens turned to find a pair of men blocking their way, both with the insignia of journeyman wizards on their shoulders.
The larger of the two had a glower on his face. Black haired and white skinned, with some slight muscle. The only thing really setting him apart was the small scar on his left hand.
The shorter was even more nondescript, though mostly due to how he held himself than how he actually looked. With practiced ease, he made himself forgettable.
“Now, why don't you hand over your purses there, and we'll see if you've got enough for us to let you by. If not, we'll take our due some other way.” The larger of the two sneered.
The two girls froze on the spot, fear plain on their faces. They shared a quick glance, before pulling their purses off their shoulders. Jasmine stepped forward a few moments before Jessica.
“I-I'm afraid we don't really have much. We're still in school.” Jasmine said to the larger mage, offering him her purse to look through.
The larger man suddenly grabbed Jasmine's wrist and ripped the purse out of her hands. “That’s fine. We’ll just take something else, then.” WIth that, he slammed her against the wall of the alley, throwing the purse to the side.
The smaller man sighed and shook his head, more or less ignoring Jessica in favor of watching his friend. “Do you have to do this every time?” He asked, glaring at the larger man. “It’s not as if you ever get very much from school kids, anyways.”
“Every little bit helps.” The large man said, raising one hand, glowing with a yellow light.
The girls' eyes widened when they saw this. While neither of them were mages, themselves, basic magic theory was a required class. They both knew exactly what the larger mage was planning. He was planning on taking some of Jasmine's Soul Essence. By force, apparently.
Every living creature had some amount of soul essence. Taking it was usually a painful and dangerous procedure if you didn’t do it correctly, and with the proper equipment. And even then, it tended to leave the target in a less than desirable state, afterwards, often including constant pain, dizziness and a general inability to do much without help, often for days after. As such, it is a procedure most commonly performed on non-sapient magical creatures, both because they wouldn’t be harming a thinking person, and because of the amount of essence that can be gained in one go.
Performing it on a human, in an alley, without proper equipment, however, was most certainly illegal, and had the slim but not inconsequential chance of killing the victim.
In this case, Jasmine.
“No!” Jasmine screamed, at the top of her lungs, legs thrashing in an attempt to kick the large mage. “Help!”
Jessica, being mobile and unwatched by either of the mages, dropped her purse and ran towards her friend. The smaller mage didn’t get off much more than a belated “Hey!” before she jumped up and grabbed the larger mages hand, pulling it away from her friend.
In retaliation, the large mage dropped Jasmine and lashed out at Jessica with his newly freed hand, hitting her hard enough to knock her into the opposite wall. Jessica tried to scramble up and away while the mage was distracted, but wasn’t fast enough. With a speed neither of the girls expected, he turned back around and once more grabbed onto her.
“Right,” he growled, “this is getting annoying. Hold still, and I won’t take everything you’ve got.” With that, his hand once more began to glow.
Jessica watched in a slight daze as he brought his hand towards her friend. For a moment, everything seemed to slow. She couldn’t simply let this happen. She couldn’t do anything, but she wouldn’t let that stop her.
She stood up on shaky legs, watching the mages hand slowly approach her friend. She took an unstable step, and another, trying to reach them in time as the world around her tried to swim in her vision.
And then the hand touched Jasmine.
Jasmine screamed.
With that, everything came back into focus for Jessica. How dare he hurt someone like that?! Her feet were steady beneath her, and she started to run. How dare he hurt her friend, especially!? The world seemed to change as she ran. Colors sharper, sounds clearer. She felt bigger and stronger, her feet not touching the ground, as if she was simply flying towards the large mage.
He turned at just the last moment, some instinct or spell warning him of her coming, and his eyes widened in surprise. He had just long enough to drop Jasmine and build a very basic shield before a 120ft. Long, 6 ton rainbow serpent headbutted him into the wall.
The wall cracked as he slammed into it, his shield, broken completely, just enough to keep him from breaking any bones. He still came out the worse for wear, however, sporting two massive bruises, one of his chest and the other on his back.
As Jessica pulled away, only now noticing how much smaller the mage looked, the large man pulled away from the wall, stumbling the first few steps. He looked up at the large, hissing serpent that had just knocked him into the wall, and began weaving a spell. Sensing the danger, Jasmine instinctively began pulling herself up to her new, maximum height, feathered wings spreading wide in an intimidating display, ready to simply strike down with fanged, and envenomed, mouth.
Luckily for the large mage, his smaller friend intervened. “She’s a mythic, Syland. We need to get moving!”
The large man, Syland, apparently, glanced towards his friend, and then back towards Jessica. He hesitated for a moment, and then turned and ran. Jessica almost followed after them. Almost. Despite her instincts telling her to chase after the small, likely tasty, fleeing prey, she remembered she had a friend to help. A small, injured friend, who wouldn’t last a minute against an enemy.
Those were not normal thoughts.
Regardless, Jessica turned her, now significantly larger head towards the other girl. Jasmine started up at her with a mix of awe, fear and concern. Despite what she had just gone through, she didn’t seem to actually be hurt. At least, not beyond a couple bruises.
Jessica slowly moved her long coils, paying more attention to where they went than she liked, so that they blocked the world off from her friend, and slowly lowered her head down to Jasmine's level. “Are you alright?” she asked, surprised at the lack of a hiss in her voice, or any other significant changes, for that matter.
Jasmine nodded, taking a moment to find her voice. “I’m-I’m fine.” She finally managed to squeak out. “He only just started to make a connection, I think.” She hesitated a moment, and then slowly reached out a hand to touch Jessica's nose.
Both girls flinched away at the last moment.
“Sorry, sorry.” Jessica said first. “I’m sorry, I just… I don’t know…”
“It’s fine.” Jasmine said. “It’s fine. Snakes don’t usually like their noses touched. I should have known that.” She placed her hands in her lap nervously and looked away.
After a few minutes of silence, she looked back up at the snake her friend had turned into. “Are you alright?” She asked. “You haven’t said anything.”
Jessica started and looked around. With a shake of her head, she focused on Jasmine again. “Sorry. Just, I’m a snake? I’m a Mythic! That’s just, it’s just...That wasn’t something I was expecting.” She shook her head again. “It’s the type of thing you hear about, and you dream about as a kid, but it’s not supposed to actually happen, you know? But it did, and I just… I don’t know.”
“I know what you mean.” Jasmine said, giving her friend another once over. “I don’t even know what type of snake you are. I mean, there aren’t many snakes your size, but I can’t think of any with rainbow scales or wings. It’s just …”
“I have wings?” Jessica interrupted, swinging her head around to look. About a third of the way down her body, she found that she did, indeed, have wings. A set of large, feathered ones that seemed to glitter and shift through all the colors of the rainbow as she moved. “I have wings.” She said, with a bit of wonder in her voice. “Rainbow wings.” She looked at her scales a little closer. “And rainbow scales. Are my eyes rainbow too?” Jasmine shook her head. “Well, at least I’m not completely rainbow. Still, why?”
Jasmine shrugged and giggled. “I assume it’s simply how whatever you are tends to be.” she said, a slight grin on her face. “I suppose we’ll have to find an expert and ask them.” With that, she stood up, and indicated with her hands that she wanted Jessica to move her coils out of the way.
“We need to take you to a hospital.” Jessica said instead. “That man just tried to steal your soul essence. That can seriously hurt you.”
“Jessica.” Jasmine sighed. “I’m fine. Really. He didn’t get more than a connection before you head-butted him.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jessica shook her head. “You need to go to the hospital. He just used hostile, soul based magic on you and…”
“Jessica. Calm down.” Jasmine interrupted. “I’m fine, but you need to go to the headmaster. He’s a skilled mage in his own right, so we’ll have him check me over, and if he says I need to go to the hospital, then I’ll go. But you need someone to help you figure all of this,” She motioned to Jessica's new form with her hands, “out. Sooner rather than later.”
Jessica hesitated, a slight hiss escaping her. “Fffine.” She finally relented. “But only because he can help you, as well. I might not like him much, but at least he’s trustworthy.” She grumbled. Then she looked over herself again, before glancing at the road beyond the alley. “Of course, that still leaves the problem of getting there…”
****************
From above the two teens, a pair of slitted blue eyes watched them. Below, a fanged grin slowly formed as a pair of white wings spread, and an ancient mind found something interesting.
Google docs link. https://docs.google.com/document/d/.....it?usp=sharing
****************
Chapter 1
Jessica Solar had gotten up that morning when she usually did. She'd gotten ready for school and left the house right on time, and even, through a quirk in traffic that day, been a few minutes earlier than normal. She talked to her friends, gone to class, had lunch, even passed a pop science quiz. All in all, a fairly normal, if unusually good, school day.
As had almost become tradition with her friends, they stopped at a little cafe on their way back home. A simple way to socialize before they all had to head home and start on schoolwork. They got their favorite drinks and snacks, sat down at their favorite table, and discussed what was going on. And made plans for the weekend, of course. There was an art show they wanted to see.
Still, a very normal day. It wasn't until they took their leave of each other, and Jessica and Jasmine decided to take a shortcut down an alley that things became un-ordinary.
****************
“And that's why I think Lord Mandel lost.” Jasmine said, with an air of certainty to her. Jessica shook her head at her friend's obsession with the series. They weren't even very well written, in her opinion. Oh well, everyone had their oddities.
Still, Jessica didn't want her friend to think she was ignoring her. “Wasn't Mandel the one that found the green sword?” She asked.
“No, silly.” Jasmine giggled. “They're still looking for that. Mandel’s the one that sent the expedition to the southern continent. If it wasn't for him, they'd have all…”
“No one cares about that series.” A masculine voice interrupted. The two teens turned to find a pair of men blocking their way, both with the insignia of journeyman wizards on their shoulders.
The larger of the two had a glower on his face. Black haired and white skinned, with some slight muscle. The only thing really setting him apart was the small scar on his left hand.
The shorter was even more nondescript, though mostly due to how he held himself than how he actually looked. With practiced ease, he made himself forgettable.
“Now, why don't you hand over your purses there, and we'll see if you've got enough for us to let you by. If not, we'll take our due some other way.” The larger of the two sneered.
The two girls froze on the spot, fear plain on their faces. They shared a quick glance, before pulling their purses off their shoulders. Jasmine stepped forward a few moments before Jessica.
“I-I'm afraid we don't really have much. We're still in school.” Jasmine said to the larger mage, offering him her purse to look through.
The larger man suddenly grabbed Jasmine's wrist and ripped the purse out of her hands. “That’s fine. We’ll just take something else, then.” WIth that, he slammed her against the wall of the alley, throwing the purse to the side.
The smaller man sighed and shook his head, more or less ignoring Jessica in favor of watching his friend. “Do you have to do this every time?” He asked, glaring at the larger man. “It’s not as if you ever get very much from school kids, anyways.”
“Every little bit helps.” The large man said, raising one hand, glowing with a yellow light.
The girls' eyes widened when they saw this. While neither of them were mages, themselves, basic magic theory was a required class. They both knew exactly what the larger mage was planning. He was planning on taking some of Jasmine's Soul Essence. By force, apparently.
Every living creature had some amount of soul essence. Taking it was usually a painful and dangerous procedure if you didn’t do it correctly, and with the proper equipment. And even then, it tended to leave the target in a less than desirable state, afterwards, often including constant pain, dizziness and a general inability to do much without help, often for days after. As such, it is a procedure most commonly performed on non-sapient magical creatures, both because they wouldn’t be harming a thinking person, and because of the amount of essence that can be gained in one go.
Performing it on a human, in an alley, without proper equipment, however, was most certainly illegal, and had the slim but not inconsequential chance of killing the victim.
In this case, Jasmine.
“No!” Jasmine screamed, at the top of her lungs, legs thrashing in an attempt to kick the large mage. “Help!”
Jessica, being mobile and unwatched by either of the mages, dropped her purse and ran towards her friend. The smaller mage didn’t get off much more than a belated “Hey!” before she jumped up and grabbed the larger mages hand, pulling it away from her friend.
In retaliation, the large mage dropped Jasmine and lashed out at Jessica with his newly freed hand, hitting her hard enough to knock her into the opposite wall. Jessica tried to scramble up and away while the mage was distracted, but wasn’t fast enough. With a speed neither of the girls expected, he turned back around and once more grabbed onto her.
“Right,” he growled, “this is getting annoying. Hold still, and I won’t take everything you’ve got.” With that, his hand once more began to glow.
Jessica watched in a slight daze as he brought his hand towards her friend. For a moment, everything seemed to slow. She couldn’t simply let this happen. She couldn’t do anything, but she wouldn’t let that stop her.
She stood up on shaky legs, watching the mages hand slowly approach her friend. She took an unstable step, and another, trying to reach them in time as the world around her tried to swim in her vision.
And then the hand touched Jasmine.
Jasmine screamed.
With that, everything came back into focus for Jessica. How dare he hurt someone like that?! Her feet were steady beneath her, and she started to run. How dare he hurt her friend, especially!? The world seemed to change as she ran. Colors sharper, sounds clearer. She felt bigger and stronger, her feet not touching the ground, as if she was simply flying towards the large mage.
He turned at just the last moment, some instinct or spell warning him of her coming, and his eyes widened in surprise. He had just long enough to drop Jasmine and build a very basic shield before a 120ft. Long, 6 ton rainbow serpent headbutted him into the wall.
The wall cracked as he slammed into it, his shield, broken completely, just enough to keep him from breaking any bones. He still came out the worse for wear, however, sporting two massive bruises, one of his chest and the other on his back.
As Jessica pulled away, only now noticing how much smaller the mage looked, the large man pulled away from the wall, stumbling the first few steps. He looked up at the large, hissing serpent that had just knocked him into the wall, and began weaving a spell. Sensing the danger, Jasmine instinctively began pulling herself up to her new, maximum height, feathered wings spreading wide in an intimidating display, ready to simply strike down with fanged, and envenomed, mouth.
Luckily for the large mage, his smaller friend intervened. “She’s a mythic, Syland. We need to get moving!”
The large man, Syland, apparently, glanced towards his friend, and then back towards Jessica. He hesitated for a moment, and then turned and ran. Jessica almost followed after them. Almost. Despite her instincts telling her to chase after the small, likely tasty, fleeing prey, she remembered she had a friend to help. A small, injured friend, who wouldn’t last a minute against an enemy.
Those were not normal thoughts.
Regardless, Jessica turned her, now significantly larger head towards the other girl. Jasmine started up at her with a mix of awe, fear and concern. Despite what she had just gone through, she didn’t seem to actually be hurt. At least, not beyond a couple bruises.
Jessica slowly moved her long coils, paying more attention to where they went than she liked, so that they blocked the world off from her friend, and slowly lowered her head down to Jasmine's level. “Are you alright?” she asked, surprised at the lack of a hiss in her voice, or any other significant changes, for that matter.
Jasmine nodded, taking a moment to find her voice. “I’m-I’m fine.” She finally managed to squeak out. “He only just started to make a connection, I think.” She hesitated a moment, and then slowly reached out a hand to touch Jessica's nose.
Both girls flinched away at the last moment.
“Sorry, sorry.” Jessica said first. “I’m sorry, I just… I don’t know…”
“It’s fine.” Jasmine said. “It’s fine. Snakes don’t usually like their noses touched. I should have known that.” She placed her hands in her lap nervously and looked away.
After a few minutes of silence, she looked back up at the snake her friend had turned into. “Are you alright?” She asked. “You haven’t said anything.”
Jessica started and looked around. With a shake of her head, she focused on Jasmine again. “Sorry. Just, I’m a snake? I’m a Mythic! That’s just, it’s just...That wasn’t something I was expecting.” She shook her head again. “It’s the type of thing you hear about, and you dream about as a kid, but it’s not supposed to actually happen, you know? But it did, and I just… I don’t know.”
“I know what you mean.” Jasmine said, giving her friend another once over. “I don’t even know what type of snake you are. I mean, there aren’t many snakes your size, but I can’t think of any with rainbow scales or wings. It’s just …”
“I have wings?” Jessica interrupted, swinging her head around to look. About a third of the way down her body, she found that she did, indeed, have wings. A set of large, feathered ones that seemed to glitter and shift through all the colors of the rainbow as she moved. “I have wings.” She said, with a bit of wonder in her voice. “Rainbow wings.” She looked at her scales a little closer. “And rainbow scales. Are my eyes rainbow too?” Jasmine shook her head. “Well, at least I’m not completely rainbow. Still, why?”
Jasmine shrugged and giggled. “I assume it’s simply how whatever you are tends to be.” she said, a slight grin on her face. “I suppose we’ll have to find an expert and ask them.” With that, she stood up, and indicated with her hands that she wanted Jessica to move her coils out of the way.
“We need to take you to a hospital.” Jessica said instead. “That man just tried to steal your soul essence. That can seriously hurt you.”
“Jessica.” Jasmine sighed. “I’m fine. Really. He didn’t get more than a connection before you head-butted him.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Jessica shook her head. “You need to go to the hospital. He just used hostile, soul based magic on you and…”
“Jessica. Calm down.” Jasmine interrupted. “I’m fine, but you need to go to the headmaster. He’s a skilled mage in his own right, so we’ll have him check me over, and if he says I need to go to the hospital, then I’ll go. But you need someone to help you figure all of this,” She motioned to Jessica's new form with her hands, “out. Sooner rather than later.”
Jessica hesitated, a slight hiss escaping her. “Fffine.” She finally relented. “But only because he can help you, as well. I might not like him much, but at least he’s trustworthy.” She grumbled. Then she looked over herself again, before glancing at the road beyond the alley. “Of course, that still leaves the problem of getting there…”
****************
From above the two teens, a pair of slitted blue eyes watched them. Below, a fanged grin slowly formed as a pair of white wings spread, and an ancient mind found something interesting.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Snake / Serpent
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 34 kB
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